Prayer that Empowers the Work of Justice

Couldn’t
Hear Nobody Pray; couldn’t hear nobody pray; way down yonder by myself;
couldn’t hear nobody pray. This
“spiritual,” was sung as part of a brilliant system of signals devised by men
and women attempting an escape from the clutches of American slavery. The song’s coded meaning was, “An escape
attempt has failed. We’re all trying to
re-group, emotionally and spiritually.” The
unfortunate persons singing this lament found themselves in imminent
danger. Their best plans toward freedom
had not worked; and there existed an immediate need for help, for direction,
for protection, for divine intervention.
They needed to hear somebody pray!

In
2012, one-hundred forty-five years since the abolition of one of America’s most
immoral and ungodly institutions, we are still making escape attempts that seem
to be failing. Many who seek to maintain
oppression of the poor, the “different,” and the disenfranchised, work
tirelessly and diabolically. These
oppressors are often supported by well-contrived policies, institutions, and
systems rooted in generations of privilege, greed, self-righteousness, and spiritual
hardness of heart.

As people called by God to do the work of
justice, we need prayer. Despite
the successes of the past, we find ourselves with much to do. We work to
provide escape from ignorance, but our schools systems are failing our
children. We work so that everyone can
be healed, but our healthcare system is failing the poor. We work to escape poverty through
opportunities for equitable paying jobs, but our economy is failing
workers. Our environment is suffering;
our food system is vulnerable; our political system is disappointing. Something has gone wrong. The escape attempts have failed. We must regroup spiritually and emotionally.

Many who fight to ensure the rights of others
too often find themselves drained, not only emotionally and spiritually, but
physically and mentally. Justice work is
never-ending and many fighters are feeling the years. Many are falling to illness and to the strain
of oppression. Some are almost burnt out
from the evil of “-isms”, i.e. racism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, etc. The intellectual impact of knowing the
unadulterated statistics and the emotional weight of seeing the facial
expressions of those living with declining quality of life are almost too much
to bear. Workers and advocates for
justice are moaning the haunting tune that signals the call to hear the prayer
back-up of their sisters and brothers in Christ. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. said, “To be a Christian
without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”

The struggle for
freedom, equality, and human rights, and equal justice requires prophetic vision, divine power, and superhuman
endurance that can only come from God.
We must pray that God would grant the clarity of God’s prophetic vision
for justice. We must pray that God will
highlight the strategic directions needed to wisely navigate the complicit
policies, contradictory procedures, and conscious perplexity of the failing
systems. Prayer
must be made, individual by individual, organization by organization, and
congregation by congregation. Most of
all, let us pray as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. prayed, “Grant that I may not
pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my
heart.”

The
United Church of Christ has more than 5,277 churches throughout the United
States. Rooted in the Christian
traditions of congregational governance and covenantal relationships, each UCC
setting speaks only for itself and not on behalf of every UCC
congregation. UCC members and churches
are free to differ on important social issues, even as the UCC remains
principally committed to unity in the midst of our diversity.